Wearing shoes with green soles can make you lose a cricket match. So goes the logic of a prominent Pakistani religious scholar, Aamir Liaquat, in comments he made on a leading private TV channel.
He was analysing the reasons behind the defeats suffered by Pakistan's cricket team. Apparently this is because green is the colour of Islam - and also the colour of the national flag.
It's worth noting Mr Liaquat is not a small-time scholar with a fringe following. Rather he is one of the most recognised religious figures in the country thanks to his TV shows. He has even served as minister of state for religious affairs under ex-dictator Pervez Musharraf.
The popularity of such a figure on mainstream Pakistani TV, who many also consider to be a "moderate" voice, raises troubling questions regarding the kind of material being allowed to air by the "free" media in Pakistan.
Certainly he is not the only one. Perhaps the most polemic is Zaid Hamid, a charismatic TV analyst who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. While he is not allowed his own programme, he still gets invited on and off to mainstream talk shows as a guest analyst to talk about political affairs and foreign policy. Often seen with a red beret on his head, Mr Hamid is an ultra-nationalist who believes the Mumbai attacks were conducted by "Hindu Zionists" and has spoken of his desire to see the Pakistani flag flying in Delhi. While he condemns al-Qaeda he also believes - as a lot of others in Pakistan - that the 9/11 attacks were conducted by the US itself.
For example, there is a clip doing the rounds on the internet where a morning show host Farah Hussain, roughly the equivalent to Lorraine Kelly, talks about a "deliberate" conspiracy to malign Islam. To illustrate, she displays a toilet mat with an abstract design on which she claims to make out the name "Allah" in Arabic. "This is definitely not accidental," she tells her viewers. "This is a planned effort."
The success of radicals and loonies like Mr Hamid and Mr Liaquat in appealing to youngsters and other vulnerable elements in society can only be understood in the context of the failure of the more liberal elements to stand up for issues of justice and against state corruption. There is a very superficial definition of liberal as someone who wears jeans and watches MTV.
Earlier: napaki.tumblr.com
Twitter handle: @napaki
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